on its own line.........basically, after the perl script reads in the text file I supply (and if there are 15 entries per file),,then the new flatfile created would have 15 lines of addresses and name...does that make sense.

I just don't know how to break on that long line and disregard it, and use the contents after it until the next line etc....

So, Jasmine and Marcus both did their bests (even more). They both wrote you functional programs that really worked. They also went through all the trouble of explaining how their programs worked and what output you should expect from them. Instead of following their advice, you posted the question again. So, do you want to learn perl, or just get someone to write your program?

that is cold, I did try their programs and they didn't work. Did you try it? Then why are you saying it did work.

The thing is, this latest question how to seprate entries based on a line is only 1/4 of the issue. ONce I know how to do that, I can figure out the rest and already know how to do the rest. NO< I don't want them to write it for me........but working 60 hours a week in the real world makes it very hard to sit at home and practice programming all day while waiting for your dinner that your mom prepared.